I want to come back to these SPON articles on “collective xenophobia” in Germany. It all started with a piece written by David Crossland „Germany’s Homegrown Intolerance”, SPON, 01/18/2008.
A piece full of anti-German prejudices. Excerpts:
(…) Maybe it’s the Germans’ romantic yearning for purity and cleanliness, for a “Heile Welt,” a “Perfect World,” that renders them prone to a collective xenophobia. This nation of dog lovers goes for pure breeds — walk around Berlin’s Grunewald Lake on a Sunday afternoon and you will see plenty of dachshunds, Alsatians and terriers. Don’t even bother trying to spot a mongrel. (…)
The debate over integration over the last decade has been shaped by conservative demands that immigrants adopt a German “Leitkultur,” or “leading culture” — a vague mix of Beethoven, sausages and Alpine cowbells, presumably. (…)
I do not really see what the author wants to tell us. To my knowledge, there is no law in Germany that forces immigrants to like “Rippchen mit Sauerkraut” or “Currywurst mit Pommes”. And Alpine cowbells? What on earth is meant by that?
The only explanation I can find for this kind of bias is using SPON`s own words slightly adapted:
Maybe it’s Spiegel Online`s romantic yearning for purity and cleanliness, for a “Perfect World,” that renders them prone to a collective anti-German-ness. Glance through this magazine and you will see plenty of articles on right-wing xenophobia. Don’t even bother trying to spot an article on left-wing xenophobia, anti-Americanism or anti-Israelism. In SPON`s “Heile Welt” this does simply not exist. Big exception of course: Henryk M. Broder`s articles. But an exception only proves the rule.
Dear David Crossland, I wanna tell you a story about a question I have been asked and it goes like that:
“Aren`t all Germans still Nazis?“
I have been asked this question twice in my life by students younger than me!
And guess where?
In France. And in Great Britain.
Not in the US.
And not in Israel.
But I never considered writing about this experience. I do not believe in “collective xenophobia”, nor do I believe in “collective guilt”.